Divided
by King Oz
Summary: Taichi examines the last month and a half of his life to find out why Yamato was crying when he died in his arms... Taito shounen ai... ONE SHOT!!


This story was originally written for a fanfiction contest held by Anime North 2003, but it kind of was a little too long, so I ended up finishing it in celebration of my two year anniversary of writing fics for FF.N... however, that was yesterday... I forgot all about it... I hope you all like it.  
  
Divided By: blue-eyed angel (a.k.a. Chibi Neko-chan or just Chi)  
  
I opened my eyes to find myself floating in endless white. One minute I was lying in the dirt, covered in my own blood, staring up into the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen and the next I'm. here. Whose eyes was I looking at again? Oh, yeah. Ishida Yamato's. They looked so sad.  
  
~Yagami Taichi, I presume.~  
  
I spun around but the deep echoing voice didn't seem to belong to anyone. "Who's there?" I called. "How do you know my name?"  
  
~I know everything about everything that enters my realm.~  
  
And still the voice was bodiless. I looked around but nothing had changed at all. "Your realm?" I wondered aloud. "Where am I? Where are my friends?" The deep voice chuckled heartily at me. I frowned.  
  
~Your friends? What friends would that be? Your fighting has divided your group. You do not deserve what I am considering. You do not deserve my aid. What is friendship if those you call friends have no trust in you?~  
  
"I don't need your help!" I spat. This person was really starting to grate on my nerves. I sat down and crossed my legs, letting out a huff of breath to show my annoyance.  
  
~Don't you remember what happened to you? The last thing to happen before you ended up here?~  
  
I frowned, thinking hard. What was he talking about? I saw Yamato's eyes flash in my memory and I suddenly knew why he had looked too devastated. But why would he cry over me? He told me he hated me. He told me he wished he'd never laid eyes on me. He spat at me. So why on earth would he look so torn up because I had died? Yeah, I remembered. I had taken a hit for him in the Digital World and I died in his arms.  
  
"I remember." I replied, burying my hands in my thick hair and leaned forward. "I don't understand it all, but I do remember."  
  
~What is it that confuses you, child?~  
  
"Yamato... he was crying when I got hit." I answered. "Why did he cry for me?"  
  
~You tell me.~  
  
"How am I supposed to tell you if I don't know myself?!" I yelled. Whoever I was talking with was being vaguer than I could stand. I felt like pulling my hair out. I heard his laughter echo through the whiteness.  
  
~But you do know. Just start at the beginning. If it will help you feel comfortable I will take a form and sit with you.~  
  
I blinked and he appeared. He had taken the form of a human boy no older than 18 or 19, my age. He gave me a reassuring smile and sat down in front of me.  
  
"What good will that do?" I asked in a disbelieving tone.  
  
"Tell me how the fighting started." He replied. "Then maybe if you remember what started everything you can understand your friend's reaction to your passing." I cocked an eyebrow at him, not really understanding a word he said, but shrugged figuring it couldn't hurt anything. I did after all have a lot of time on my hands now... since I was dead and all.  
  
"Where do I start?" I asked, frowning slightly at him. He gave me a blank stare and tilted his head to the side.  
  
"Why don't you start with the day the hostility started." He exclaimed softly. I let out a deep sigh and thought back.  
  
"The fighting all started about a month and a half ago." I started.  
  
***  
  
It was a Friday morning and I was walking Yamato to his music class. It was one of the only classes we didn't share that semester. I looked up and sent him a quiet chuckle to some joke he had said that I missed. He didn't notice, yet, but I knew he'd notice that I wasn't paying attention. It wasn't that I didn't like listening to him, I loved hearing his voice, but it was the topic I wasn't too thrilled about. He was talking about his band mates.  
  
I had met them a couple of months ago at one of their local gigs. They did everything to make me uncomfortable while I was there. Maybe it was something about how close Yamato and I were that really set them off. I suppose they thought they should be his closest friends because they were in a band together. It could also have been that I was holding most of Yamato's attention at the time, but they've never been friendly to me and Yama was oblivious to it.  
  
We stopped in front of the music room where his band was waiting for him. He gave me a quick hug and slipped through the door whispering his good- byes.  
  
"See you at lunch!" He waved and shut the door behind him. That left me with dragging my feet to my own class, which was Math.  
  
I dropped down into my seat beside Sora Takenouchi and lay my head on the table, sighing deeply.  
  
"I hate math." I moaned. Even though I was looking in the other direction, I could almost hear her smirk.  
  
"Well Taichi, maybe if you did the homework you would actually understand what the sensei is teaching us." I snorted in response.  
  
"Wouldn't change my loathing for it." I mumbled. She laughed softly.  
  
Luckily, sensei Yamamoto wasn't there and we had a supply sensei. He gave us a free period to chat and the class went by quickly.  
  
When the bell rang for lunch I was one of the first people out of there. I headed for the lunch line and waited for Yamato to show up. I looked around until I saw him and his fellow band mates walking towards me looking for all the world like I had just shot his brother. I quirked an eyebrow at his sharp glare and shrugged. He was probably just being his usual moody self. He occasionally came out of music class edgy and stressed.  
  
I smiled and waved and was startled when I saw his eyes narrow further. He came right up to me and shoved me out of the lunch line. The other people made space for us, sensing the beginnings of a fight.  
  
"Yagami Taichi!" He yelled. I winced at his voice. He never called me by my full name unless he was beyond angry with me. "How could you say those things about me?!" he screamed at me and I frowned. I could see his band smirking in the background at me. I knew they were behind this, but what was it that I supposedly said?  
  
"Say what?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at his group.  
  
"Koji's told me all about the rumours you've been spreading about me!" he shot back. I knew those guys were no good.  
  
"Rumours? What are you talking about?" I asked.  
  
"You called me a slut!" He exclaimed. "You told everyone that I would sleep with any girl who threw themselves at me." I eyed him suspiciously and thought twice about laughing my head off. Did he really think I would make up something stupid like that? I'm way more intelligent than that.  
  
"Do you really believe this?" I asked. "Why would I make up shit like that?" He ignored my questions.  
  
"You were right. I am a gullible fool." He was looking at the ground with his fists clenched so tightly they were shaking.  
  
"Wait a minute. I've never called you gullible." I replied trying in vain to stand up for myself. How could he choose his band mates over me?  
  
"Stop lying, Yagami. I know what you think of me. That you find me repulsive, lower than dirt. That you *pity* me. Well I don't need your goddamned pity." He spat at me.  
  
"What about when he slammed us?" Koji piped up. I shot him a withering glare and gritted my teeth to stop from swearing at him. Our little argument had drawn quite the crowd and teachers were beginning to take notice of us.  
  
"I can stand everything you've called me, but when you call Takeru a whiny brat you cross the line." He looked up at me and at that very moment I was terrified of him. His eyes were filled with so much pain and hatred towards me. He swung his fist straight at my head and I was too stunned to move. The punch hit me right below my eye and an all out fight followed. Yamato leaned into me and I lost my balance and fell into a chair. I tried everything I could to roll him over and pin him down so that I could get him to listen to me, but he kept hitting me and before I could get a word out we had been separated by three teachers and sent to the principal's office.  
  
"How could you say that shit about me?" Yamato asked me softly. "I thought we were friends."  
  
"We are. Best friends." I replied. "I would never say that about you or Takeru." He scoffed at me.  
  
"I'm not falling for your lies anymore." I dug my nails into my palms to stop myself from telling him how gullible I really thought he was. And that's when it hit me.  
  
I realized in that moment just how little trust and faith he had in me. I sat there in stunned silence as I felt the world cave in on me. If I didn't have my best friend's trust then I didn't have anyone's.  
  
"I don't ever want to speak to you again." He snarled under his breath and I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping to wake up the next second. No such luck.  
  
We waited until the principal saw us. She lectured us for a few minutes before sending us home, suspended for the rest of the day.  
  
***  
  
I spent the next month wandering the halls of school hearing whispering behind my back. It turned out that Yamato was so mad about the supposed rumours I had been spreading that he started a few of his own about me. The only difference was that he didn't deny any of them.  
  
Koushiro called my house one day while we were all out sounding urgent. He demanded a meeting at his house the next day. The others knew the basics of our fighting, but nobody dared to take sides, except Hikari and Takeru. Hikari didn't care what Yamato said and believed me about everything, whereas Takeru was behind his brother one hundred and ten percent. They ended up breaking their friendship because of it.  
  
I walked slowly towards Koushiro's apartment, hoping that I wouldn't have to worry about a confrontation with Yamato. I didn't want any of our friends involved in our argument. I knocked lightly on the door and Sora answered. She invited me in and told me that everyone was waiting for me in Koushiro's bedroom. She led me in.  
  
"Should've known he'd never show up on time." Yamato muttered under his breath. I looked up at him and saw that he was glaring daggers at me from straight across the room. I lowered my gaze again and sat where I was. I wanted to stay as far away from him as possible.  
  
"You guys have never held a grudge this long." Sora stated, sitting on the bed beside Koushiro who was busy tapping away on his laptop. "I'm sure whatever it is that you are fighting about isn't worth your friendship."  
  
"Why don't you just mind your own business for a change." I snapped at her, resentful for her trying to butt in. "You can't solve every problem." I added. She looked hurt for all of two seconds before shrugging off my comments. The group had all gotten used to my snippy attitude towards the conflict between us.  
  
"We're needed again in the digital world." Koushiro piped up. It had been almost four years since we last had problems with that place.  
  
"What's wrong now?" Jyou asked. Koushiro turned his laptop around and showed everyone what was on the screen. It was a picture of Devimon.  
  
"Who's that?" Daisuke asked. None of the younger digidestined knew about him.  
  
"Is that Devimon?" Hikari asked, leaning closer. I had almost forgotten that she wasn't there for the battle either.  
  
"Of course it is." Takeru rolled his eyes at her. She ignored him.  
  
"This is one of the first strong digimon that we faced in the digital world." Koushiro explained to them. "He was defeated in the battle against Angemon and both digimon's data was deleted. Angemon's returned as a digi- egg with us and Devimon's was sent to the nursery to be reborn. Because of this ability to be reborn again he has returned to try to gain control of the digital world again. He's had so much time to rebuild his strength that he's grown much stronger than the last time we saw him."  
  
"So we're supposed to just go there and delete him again?" I asked. "But won't he be reborn again?" Koushiro nodded.  
  
"Gennai sent us some information on how to prevent a digimon from being reborn." He turned the laptop back around and pulled up an e-mail. "He says that we have to absorb the data before it is sent to the nursery. The digimon acquire the data into their own and it increases their energy level. It's sort of like eating a digital sandwich." He exclaimed.  
  
"Great." Miyako muttered unenthusiastically. "So when do we leave?" she asked.  
  
Koushiro pulled out his digivice and held it up to the computer.  
  
"Right now." He exclaimed before opening the portal for us.  
  
***  
  
Just like all those times we returned from the Digital World, we landed in a heap outside of Gennai's house. Whoever I landed on was struggling to push me off.  
  
"Get off me you bastard." I heard Yamato swear before he punched me hard in the stomach. I rolled off him quickly and sat up.  
  
"What the hell was that for?!" I yelled at him. "You didn't need to punch me!" I threw my own retaliation punch at him and we began to fight again. I jumped at him and started to fling my fists wildly in the direction of his face. Maybe it was because of the built up frustration, but I couldn't stop myself. He didn't seem to want to stop either.  
  
"That's enough!" I heard Sora scream and we were pulled apart by Daisuke, Takeru and Hikari. "Can't you two get along until we get back to the real world?" she asked and turned around, not really caring if we answered that. I crossed my arms and turned away from Yamato. We were greeted briefly by Gennai, who supplied us with sleeping bags and food, and then sent us on our way.  
  
We spent the rest of the day walking through the forest, following Koushiro's laptop directions. That night we camped out and I found a spot for my sleeping bag as far from Yamato as I could manage in case he decided to lash out at me again. Unfortunately, being far from him didn't prevent him from insulting me to Takeru.  
  
"What a selfish jerk." He exclaimed, purposely being loud for my benefit. "I bet he'd leave us all in the dirt if a big enough opportunity presented itself to him." Everyone at the cam heard him, but no one was willing to defend me except Kari. She ended up yelling at Yamato through Takeru, who was yelling back at her. The others refused to get involved in our fight. They didn't want to choose sides, although Sora looked like she wanted desperately to try and play peacemaker with us. I ignored everyone and slipped into my sleeping bag, rolling over so my back was to the group. I figured that way I could let it all out in peace.  
  
I think I ended up crying myself to sleep that night. I was pretty much crushed at the loss of my friendship with him. He was always the person I turned to when I was feeling that low, but when he turned his back on me I had no one to turn to except for myself.  
  
***  
  
In the morning the others noticed my puffy eyes, but only Hikari asked me about it. I told her it was nothing and she dropped it, but I noticed her glaring at Yamato and Takeru a little more often for the rest of that day. They seemed oblivious to it.  
  
We continued through the forest until we came upon a hotel just as the sun dipped below the horizon. Koushiro announced that staying in the hotel would be safer than out in the open, so we all agreed to sleep indoors that night. As we were settling in, I overheard Hikari in the next room yelling at Yamato who seemed to be yelling back.  
  
"You're such an asshole!" She screamed. I was a little bit startled at her vocabulary. "Taichi would never say any of those things about you. Why do you always have to believe every bad thing you hear? You two were best friends. You want to know who screwed up that? It sure as hell wasn't Taichi." Yamato snapped right back at her, but before he could retaliate much a loud explosion rocked the floor.  
  
I looked around to see a group of Meramon standing in the lobby. They had blown the front doors clear off, leaving the hinges smoking. They were easily defeated by Daisuke and Miyako's digimon.  
  
"I don't think this is such a safe place to stay anymore." Koushiro whispered softly behind me. I nodded my head in agreement.  
  
We ended up walking through the forest again until we were too tired to keep going. I just fell asleep where my head hit he ground, not caring how close to Yamato I was.  
  
***  
  
In the morning I woke up to the most wondrous sight. Two big beautiful eyes were beaming down at me. I blinked a few times and sure enough Yamato was kneeling beside me with his hands behind his back and a smile plastered on his face.  
  
"Morning Tai!" He greeted me cheerfully. "They sent me over here to wake you up for breakfast." He explained and pulled a bucket from behind his back. I gave him a weird look. "You see they didn't tell me how to wake you up so I decided this was a fresh enough start." He grinned and threw the ice cold water that was in the bucket straight at my face, drenching me absolutely. "I hope you had a nice sleep." He sneered at me and stood to walk away.  
  
"You jerk!" I screamed and lunged at him, tackling him to the floor. We rolled around, both looking to pin the other, but once again we were separated before either of us could get the upper hand.  
  
"Yamato!" Sora lectured. "You shouldn't have thrown water all over him, and you, " she turned to me and gave me her sternest look. "You shouldn't have attacked him. Why don't you two leave each other alone until you can calmly settle all of this." I turned and glared at Yamato as she turned and walked away. He gave me a glare of his own. I crossed my arms over my chest and went back to my belongings to pack up and change into dry clothes. We had both missed breakfast.  
  
That time when we headed out, we went straight into the mountains. Supposedly Devimon had been staying on the top of one of them, waiting for a worthy challenger.  
  
"I'm cold!" Daisuke wailed for the tenth time that minute. Takeru walked over and wrapped his arms around his thinly dressed frame. Daisuke leaned into his boyfriend's body heat and we continued up the mountain.  
  
"This map says that there's a hut around that corner." Koushiro pointed up ahead. "We should stay there for the night." Everyone who wasn't frozen solid nodded their heads and kept walking.  
  
***  
  
When we finally got to the small hut and settled in I found myself a nice cozy corned and curled up, trying to regain some of my lost heat.  
  
"What exactly was it that Taichi said about you?" I heard Takeru whisper softly. I remained as still as possible, waiting for the reply.  
  
"He called me horrible things." Yamato exclaimed sullenly. "He said that he pitied me because of all of my problems. Koji told me that he was telling all of his friends that I was sleeping with every girl in the school." I noticed that Yamato's voice was getting softer with every word and soon I wouldn't be able to hear him.  
  
"I couldn't imagine Taichi ever saying anything of the sort about you, niichan, he was your best friend. But if you believe he said those things then I'll stand by you." I sniffed loudly, feeling my pitiful tears returning. My body tensed up as I began sobbing quietly into my pillow.  
  
"Tai?" Yamato called softly. I had the feeling that he had heard my sobs.  
  
"Fuck off." I snarled at him and forced down the rest of my tears. He didn't say anything else and eventually I found sleep again.  
  
***  
  
In the morning we headed back into the frozen wastelands of the mountains only to be surrounded by Frigimon. Agumon, Piyomon and Veemon melted the snow digimon and we continued on our way.  
  
Daisuke came up to me ten minutes into the hike and tapped my shoulder.  
  
"Daisuke?" I asked.  
  
"You know it's only because of Takeru that I'm not choosing sides, ne?" He asked me. I smiled and nodded. If it wasn't for his boyfriend he would be defending me, too. "You know that this argument is both of your faults?" He said. I gave him a funny look that told him I didn't understand what he meant. "Yamato-san is being too pig-headed and has too much gel on his head to realize what a fool he's being, and you're not trying hard enough to fix this."ound a spot for my sleepingbag a spot for my sleepingbag lowing Koushiro'n our way. he he He explained.  
  
"But I've done everything I can think of to tell him I didn't start those rumours, but he won't listen to anything I say." I sighed. "Nothing is going to save our friendship." I muttered. Daisuke gave me a lost look and walked back to Takeru. I looked over and Daisuke seemed to be saying the same sort of things to Yamato.  
  
"Maybe he should have thought about that before he started talking behind my back!" Yamato yelled furiously at Daisuke. I gritted my teeth and stumbled past them, muttering "Asshole" when I was close enough for Yamato to hear me. I knew he would get angry and try to take a swipe at me.  
  
"What did you say?!" he yelled. I stopped in my tracks and turned around.  
  
"You heard what I said." I retorted. "You're a self-righteous, big-headed asshole who has a permanent stick up his ass." I added for good measure. I was fed up being pushed around by his remarks. "You re so easily swayed by people's lies, especially when they make someone untrustworthy in your eyes. Or did you forget how Cherrymon turned you against us?" I smirked triumphantly when I saw the shock register on his frostbitten face. He pulled back a fist and smacked me right in the jaw, but I didn't move. I didn't even try to punch back.  
  
"No amount of violence will ever make me take back what I just said." I spat at him and walked away, not caring if the tears that were flowing down my face froze to my skin. At least I finally stood up for myself.  
  
***  
  
The next morning we finally reached the top of the mountain to find Devimon waiting for us. Everyone digivolved to their ultimate level in order to fight, but not even with the added help of the megas were they able to hurt our former rival. He laughed at our poor attempts.  
  
"We need Omnimon!" Hikari yelled to me. I nodded and Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon Jogress digivolved together to form Omnimon. Devimon was startled at our digimon's power. He had never seen Omnimon before. We fought him for a few minutes before finally finding a weakness in his defence and launched the final blow. Devimon was deleted laughing smugly, almost as if he knew something we didn't. Everyone else thought he was laughing because he thought he was returning to the nursery. When all of his form had separated into little bits of data, Omnimon absorbed the data and everyone else de-digivolved back to their rookie forms.  
  
"Yeah!" Daisuke exclaimed cheerfully. "We did it!" Everyone began cheering for our victory. I smiled sadly and walked to the edge of the mountain and looked down. I thought maybe if I jumped they wouldn't miss me. I realized that because everyone wanted to stay neutral they were uneasy about any possible conflict that would make it look like they were choosing sides. I kicked a small stone over the edge and listened for the sound of it landing roughly on the ground below. I sighed. Hikari would probably have killed me for even considering it.  
  
"I wouldn't be celebrating so soon, digidestined." A hoarse voice called out from behind me. I turned around and saw Demidevimon flying above the group. "I'm Devimon's last chance for revenge." He exclaimed. "He ordered me to hurt the little brat who killed him the first time. He said to hurt him so deeply that he'll feel like his insides are burning." I watched as he aimed and realised that he meant to hit Yamato and not Takeru. It took me two seconds to run over to him and put myself between Yamato and the sure to be fatal blast.  
  
"What are you doing, boy?!" Demidevimon screeched at me. Yamato was sprawled out on the ground, exhausted from our recent battle. I wondered briefly what he thought of me doing this for him.  
  
"I'm not going to allow you to slaughter my best friend." I shouted at the small digimon. I could feel my courage building. "You'll just have to go through me first." I exclaimed and held out my arms like a human shield.  
  
"MOVE!" He yelled at me, but there was no way I was going to listen to him. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that the others had frozen. They probably didn't know what to do. Their digimon were worn out from the battle with Devimon.  
  
"Never!" I yelled back. Yamato might have hated me, but I didn't hate him and there was no way I'd stand by and watch some digimon roast him alive.  
  
"Fine then. I'll just go through you." But he underestimated his power. He fired a blast at me that seemed to take away every bit of his energy, but it never went past me. It hurt like hell but Yamato was still safe.  
  
"Taichi!" I heard Yamato yell and I fell over backwards. I think maybe he caught my body before I hit the ground, but I couldn't feel anything but the pain. "You're going to be alright." He whispered softly to me and I looked up at Jyou as the others crowded around me. I supposed Demidevimon didn't have the strength to move much less get away. Jyou shook his head solemnly.  
  
"Why did you do it?" Yamato asked me. "Why did you have to go and do that, idiot." He had tears streaming down his cheeks.  
  
I smiled and looked up at him.  
  
"I never pitied you, Yama-Chan." I whispered, answering his question my own way. "I never could. I've only ever looked up to, respected and loved you. More than anything I loved you." Yamato began to sob.  
  
"No, onegai, don't leave me Taichi. Please don't go." He cried and held on tightly to my bloody shirt. I looked up into his wonderful blue eyes one last time and closed my own.  
  
***  
  
I sighed and looked at the boy in front of me. He had listened quite patiently through my entire story.  
  
"What did you mean by help?" I asked him. He smiled blankly at me. I guess he must not have been used to displaying emotions in that form.  
  
"Yamato has crashed." He exclaimed, ignoring my question. "It's been two weeks since your death for them and your friend can't cope with the reality of losing you. He's even thought about suicide. Just like you did before your sacrifice." I paled. If he committed suicide then I'd be here for nothing.  
  
"Why did you need to absorb Devimon's data?" He asked me. I looked at him, confused. I thought I explained that part before.  
  
"It was so that he wouldn't be reconfigured in the nursery." I exclaimed with a deep sigh. He grinned at me. Before I could think I was back in the digital world. That was what he meant by help. I had been reconfigured and downloaded back to the mountain. I wandered around until I spotted the group gathered around a tombstone. I Came up behind everyone and raised myself up to my tip-toes to see what they had said about me. I peered over their shoulders and saw the tombstone.  
  
It read:  
  
Yagami Taichi  
  
1986-2005  
  
Courage personified to the bitter end.  
  
I stepped back and scratched my head. Why had they put such mushy crap on my final resting place?  
  
"I would have thought you'd have put something about my soccer skills or great hair on that thing." I muttered loudly, hoping the crankiness was evident in my voice. "How could I have rested in peace with some piece of crap like that on my tombstone?" I snorted. Everyone whipped around and stared at me in disbelief. For a few seconds nobody said a word. Then Mimi let rip an ear-splitting scream.  
  
"It's Tai's ghost!" She wailed and hid behind the nearest person, who just happened to be Sora. I looked at her for a second before comically looking behind myself. I didn't see a ghost.  
  
"I knew those nurseries were good for something." I laughed and put a hand behind my head nervously. They were still staring at me with their mouths open like fish. I looked at each of them and noticed that a lot of them still had tear-stains on their cheeks. At least I knew they would miss me when I disappeared for good. Yamato, who had been kneeling at the grave stood up and walked up to me. His face was blank and that pretty much scared the crap out of me right there.  
  
He came up to me and placed his palm to my cheek, almost as if testing to see if I was really there. His thumb faintly traced a line from the corner of my eye to the corner of my lips. Then he pulled back and slammed his fist into my face. I was so startled by that fist that I stumbled backwards and fell to the ground. Damn, that was going to hurt later.  
  
I looked up at Yamato and noticed he was shaking. His fists were clenched tightly at his sides and he was shaking.  
  
"How could you do that to me, you selfish jerk!" He screamed at me, his eyes hidden by his blond hair. I was about to apologize when he seemed to stumble and half collapse, half dive into my arms. He was still shaking, but with the sudden wetness on my neck, I knew it was from sobs and not rage. He wrapped his arms around my waist and held me tightly. I was startled and froze for a second. I know I'm dense, but not that dense. I just needed to let it all sink in before my body would finally listen to me. I looked down at the messy array of blond hair attached to my chest and wrapped my own arms around his back, allowing one hand to place itself at the base of his neck, running softly through his golden locks.  
  
"You don't always have to play the martyr." Yamato exclaimed between sobs into my dirt-covered, blood-stained shirt. I smiled down at him. He was being naïve.  
  
"I didn't do it to play the martyr." I whispered to him. "I did it because I didn't want to see you die." He sniffled and looked up at me momentarily, the pain still visible in his eyes.  
  
"It was still selfish." He muttered. "Watching you die in my arms was the worst kind of pain I could receive. Worse even than dying myself." He buried his head back into my neck when a fresh onslaught of tears cracked his voice. "Don't leave me again." He whispered into my neck. His voice was so soft, I barely caught his words.  
  
"Hey!" I scoffed lightly, hoping to get everyone away from this grief. It was raining on my good mood. "I just came back from the dead. What makes you think I want to go back any time soon?" I felt him nod and he sat back, still holding onto me. He looked thoughtful for a moment, almost as if he was trying to remember something.  
  
"I've only ever looked up to, respected and loved you. More than anything I loved you." He whispered to me, reciting the words I had told him before I died. He looked up and leaned in closer, placing a feather light kiss on my lips. Before he even leaned back I was grinning giddily. My head felt light and I sighed dreamily. Everyone laughed at my expression and I finally realized we had an audience.  
  
"I never wanted to believe the rumors they told me about you." Yamato exclaimed. "Deep down I actually knew you wouldn't ever say things like that about me, but my pride got in the way." I grinned at him, still light- headed from the kiss.  
  
"I know." I told him. "I knew you'd eventually come around. Although, I was hoping it wouldn't take something as drastic as me dying to get you to use your brain." I laughed as he gave me a smack on the shoulder.  
  
"Stubborn asshole." He muttered, but cracked a smile just the same. I was the happiest I had ever been. I couldn't remember ever feeling as euphoric as I felt in the moment that I saw Yamato's smile. He was my other half. Without him I was divided.  
  
I hugged him tightly to me and stood up.  
  
"Let's go home, Yama-Chan." I whispered and kissed him softly on the cheek, heading back to the portal home.  
  
~Owari  
  
I haven't done a Digimon story in so long. Have I rusted any? 


End file.
